VOLUME 2 Bamboo for Thailand and Southeast Asia - BambuSC

Bamboo is one of the most diverse groups of plants in the grass family which belongs to the sub-family of
Bambusoidae (Zheng and Guo 2003). It is widely recognized as an important non-wood forest resource due to
not only its excellent mechanical properties but also its high socioeconomic benefits. Housing, packaging and
transportation are only few examples its common utilization for many years in Asian countries (Zhang and
Yonglan 1988; Xuhe 2005;Sumardi et al.2005; Wang and Joe 1983). Currently, bamboo is still considered as
under-utilized non-wood species, although it has additional limited use as scaffolding, furniture units, plywood,
and flooring in Thai constructional industries (Ye 1991; Ganapathy et al. 1992). Its fast growth rate and better
characteristics than many other wood species makes this resource an alternative raw material for various
composite panel manufacture. One of the first bamboo composite panels developed was in 1940’s in China and
since then, at least 28 different types of bamboo composite products have been developed (Ganapathy et
al.1992). Also there have been several attempts to explore the possibility to produce panel products including
particleboard, oriented standboard, plywood, and laminated composite panels from bamboo at commercial level
(Bai 1996 ; Hiziroglu et al. 2005; Lee et al. 1996, Li et al. 1994; Li 2004; Chow et al. 1993, Chew et al. 1994,
Chen and Hua; 1991).
Although particleboard is also used as substrate for overlays its rough surface may create certain problems
resulting show through the thin films or direct finishing applications. Medium density fiberboard which is
prime substrate product for furniture and cabinet manufacture is the most widely used interior type of panel in
many countries including Thailand. However overall cost of MDF is more expensive and has more complicated
manufacturing process than that of particleboard. Combination of fibers and particle in the form of sandwich
type of panel would possibly solve this cost problem. Experimental panels with a sandwich configuration were
also manufactured from bamboo. Since fibers were used on the face layers it is expected such panels had not
only smooth surface with thin layer of fibers on board faces but also their overall properties were enhanced.
The main objective of this study was to explore potential suitability of bamboo to develop value-added interior
panel products, namely particleboard, medium density fiberboard (MDF), and sandwich type panels having
fibers on the face layers and the coarse particles in the core layer. Both basic physical and mechanical properties
of experimental panels made from bamboo were tested to find if bamboo could be used to produce experimental
panels with accepted properties.
Materials and Methods
Bamboo (Dendrocalamus asper) samples were harvested in Khon Khen, Prachin Buri bamboo plantation in
Thailand. The specimens were reduced into chips using a commercial chipper before they were hammermilled
for particle production. Figure 1 shows particle and fibers of bamboo used in this study. A laboratory type
defibrator illustrated in Figure 2 was employed for disintegration of bamboo chips into the fibers using a
pressure of 0.75 MPa, at a temperature of 160 o C for 1.5 min. before particles and fibers were dried in a kiln at a
temperature of 80 o C until the furnish reached to 4 % moisture content. Later dried fibers were mixed for 4 min
with 9 % urea-formaldehyde resin with a specific gravity of 1.27 and solid content of 84.8% in a rotating drum
type mixer fitted with a pneumatic spray gun. Half percent wax was also added during resin spraying for the
furnish. Twenty and 50% rice straw fibers and particles were also added into the various types of panels to
VIII World Bamboo Congress Proceedings Vol 2-25